dan lothian's noticed the change in tone. dan's joining us now with more. what's the latest on the successor for hillary clinton, dan? >> reporter: that's right. this is senator, john mccain, who had been working to discredit ambassador rice, had been digging in on this, criticizing her, prompting the president at his news conference to say, if they wanted to go after anyone, they should go after him. now there's a noticeable shift and senator mccain says he's ready to listen. from threat tong block her possible nomination to south korea south korea to a willingness to hear her out, senator john mccain seems to be dialing back his public opposition to ambassador susan rice. >> i think she deserves the ability and the opportunity to explain herself and her position. >> reporter: another vocal critic, senator lindsey graham, is still expressing doubts about her but avoided answering whether he would still stand in the way of a rice nomination. >> when she comes over, if she does, there will be a lot of questions asked after her about this event and others. >>